


The Hours Will Carry You

by paperwar



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou
Genre: Gardens & Gardening, Multi, OT3, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-06
Updated: 2011-06-06
Packaged: 2017-10-20 05:04:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/209037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperwar/pseuds/paperwar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taki, Tanuma, and Natsume's first year together, in twelve parts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hours Will Carry You

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from "Last Spring" by Gottfried Benn.

January brings unexpectedly heavy snow. Tooru slips on her way to get groceries, landing hard on her tailbone. Takashi helps her up and gives her a painkiller while Kaname shovels. There's still snow the next day when she insists she's no longer stiff. Takashi and Kaname shrug; it's too much fun to throw heavy, wet snowballs at each other to protest. She's got the best aim of the three of them.

**

In February, Tooru says Valentine's Day is silly. It's one of those things people get dragged into -- "Like the school festival, remember that?" she asks them -- whether or not they want to. "Let's make a deal," she says. "No chocolate from me, and nothing from you on White Day. Okay?" Takashi nods; probably he'd never imagined a life in which he'd have to worry about chocolate anyway. Kaname agrees with them, though a tiny part of him wonders what it would've been like. This is the first year things have been serious enough, and clear enough, between them that this has even been a possibility. He knows that their paths lie together, that their lives and hearts are interlocked. Who for each of them but each other? Tooru is right. But when Ponta hears their house will be chocolateless, he objects at high volume. Tooru plants him on her lap and cuddles him until he squeezes free, swearing mildly at her.

**

Kaname abandons his winter jacket and scarf in March. The nights are still chilly, though. He shivers, hands shoved into Tooru's pocket on one side and Takashi's on the other, as they hurry home from the garden center one evening (they struggle, as always, to dismiss the looks they draw when in public together). None of them were interested in gardening before, but the patch of dirt at the back of their house is something they can shape and watch over together. They strew a plethora of seeds haphazardly in the soil and in small newspaper pots on their windowsills. Takashi develops a habit of folding more pots during uncomfortable conversations. Not that they have many of those, but some of their youkai visitors bring trouble right along with them.

**

Though they are atypical in avoiding holidays like Valentine's Day, they are seduced by burgeoning springtime. Cherry blossoms make them swoon like anybody else; in April they exist in a giddy haze as long as the flowers are there to marvel at.

**

By May their garden is a mass of sprouts and tendrils. They can't remember everything they planted, but it's messy and alive and exciting. "Like us," Tooru says to them, and Takashi and Kaname laugh, but they're blushing at the same time because they know that she means it. And that she's right. Later they eat their first homegrown salad, a peppery mix of mostly unidentifiable greens. They can't name exactly what's in there, but they like it.

**

They spend more time peering out at their garden through the rain in June than actually being in it. Kaname passes the time paging through cookbooks, trying to predict how much of any one vegetable they might soon have and what he might do with them. Takashi takes more naps than usual, and Tooru spends hours attempting to read some more of her grandfather's books, one hand flicking her hair away from her sweaty forehead every few seconds.

**

It's halfway through July before the rains relent at all. They have more encounters now; there are more youkai on the streets to be bumped into. They see Natori, sometimes, and give him a restrained greeting. He always sparkles at Takashi, while Kaname looks at him with eyes narrowed slightly and Tooru with a raised eyebrow. Once Natori's popped up, they tend to follow him, because they're still worried that he might exorcise a spirit that doesn't deserve it.

**

The August sun hammers down, and some of the more delicate greens bolt, flowering with serious reproductive intent. Some of them just crisp away to nothing. Takashi's the one who discovers a handful of strawberries, each a tiny miracle. They feed each other, giggling, shy with it. There are marigolds blazing, uncaring of the heat. And it looks like they might have a few tomatoes, which feels like another miracle, even though Touko has assured them tomatoes are perfectly reasonable plants for beginners.

**

In fact there's a startling glut of tomatoes, and then in September the plants seem to sag, leaves browning and spotting for no apparent reason. “Maybe it's just their time,” Takashi suggests. Touko recommends, belatedly, some special plant food, but the plants never really recover. It almost doesn't matter; Kaname is already dreaming of what bounty next summer will bring.

**

In October it's Tooru who recalls that, when they were researching flowers in the spring, it was too late for most of the ones they wanted. She brings home bulbs: tulips, crocuses. Takashi beams at her as they plant them in the chilly ground, packing the soil around them with care, fingers clumsy with the cold inside the thin gardening gloves. Kaname's busy in the kitchen, having promised them lunch once they finish.

**

In November they go hiking solely to catch the prettiest leaves changing. They rake over the last of the garden, consider whether they could fit in some more bulbs under the mulch. The world is slowing down. It feels good to spend less time hovering over plants, right to let that activity slip away. They puzzle over winter crops but decide to let the earth, and themselves, rest. "Next year we'll have to start earlier," Tooru says.

**

It's not a surprise when Tooru announces at the start of December that she's a little disgusted by Christmas, too. “Presents and lovey-dovey stuff,” she says. “Don't we do that whenever we want?” Christmas Eve thus passes unmarked, except Kaname does cook a fancy dinner (to be fair, he is prone to doing this at the least provocation). New Year's Eve brings them to Kai's mountain, where they watch the first sunrise of the new year together. On the way back they stop at Yatsuhara. “We are surrounded,” Tooru notes, “by people who love us. Who love _you_ ,” she says, poking at Takashi. He blushes on cue before saying, “I hope this year will be like last year.” “Me too,” Tooru and Kaname reply in unison.


End file.
